Agreed.

Agreed.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under this region and under Highway 4,0-67, 69, reconstruction, $550, 1999-2000 for a total project cost of $15.150 million. There is a committee recommendation to see if this amount can be decreased and put into the main highway system? Will the Minister consider this recommendation and to see if this amount can be decreased? I know there has been money spent already. I know some of this money has been spent, but possibly there may be a way to decrease it without lowering the safety standard of the highway.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess the best to describe it is to tell the Minister a bit of a story about this highway superintendent out of the Hay River region. One of them was born and raised in the Northwest Territories and last spring, I think it was, I was in Fort Resolution and people were complaining about the highway coming into Fort Resolution because it has a tendency to wash out and has a tendency to have low spots, lots of water problems, so I told the gentleman that people are complaining about the highway. They do not think the highway is in very good shape. He says to me, well young man, I will tell you, I think that highway is in pretty good shape considering it was built on the bottom of the lake. That is basically where it was built for the last ten miles. You do have a program in place for drainage for the last ten miles into Fort Resolution. They are doing that over the years, trying to fix it, and this road was built on top of, in those days when they built the road they laid the trees down and put the dirt on top of it, so all these huge trees come through in the spring and they are fixing that as best as they can but, to ensure that program is reduced to ensure that work will continue this year on that stretch of highway, will that happen?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The residents of Fort Smith and Fort Resolution over the years enjoyed having a paved highway and it is paved from Hay River to Pine Point and then it is paved to the Big Buffalo River Junction. It is a very nice highway, well maintained by Nuni Development Corporation out of Fort Resolution and the government people, as well, out of Fort Smith and Hay River. Over the years there has been a certain amount of maintenance done to that highway, but this government has an investment in that highway. It is a good highway. It is well taken care of, but it is an investment and if you allow your investment to deteriorate to a certain condition you may end up with a gravel highway instead of a paved highway. Are there proper maintenance dollars in this budget and future budgets to ensure that the standard of the highway continues to be the same, continues to be a good highway into Fort Resolution and Fort Smith?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess the concern I would have is the possibility of accelerating Highway 3, and even with the dollars that we have today and where they are being spent, that we have to be cautious that we do not deteriorate our other highways to the extent where you are going to have major capital programs just to bring them back up to an acceptable standard. That is the concern that I would have, that we do not allow the maintenance of our existing highways to suffer by fast-tracking something else or by putting all the money into one area and then allowing our highways in the South Slave, for example, as well as even the highways into Nahendeh and the Deh Cho area. We have got to be very cautious that we do not slash our maintenance budget to the extent that you are doing damage to the highways instead of good.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. The priority, as the Minister said, is to protect the investment in the infrastructure that currently the department has. That is the priority for the operations and maintenance dollars that we have out there. The application of those operations and maintenance dollars is

distributed around the entire system, including the Dempster Highway, the South Slave highways, North Slave highways and the Deh Cho highways.

Specifically, investments such as paved surfaces are of great concern because once you make the investment in a paved surface it is important to maintain that. The cost of replacing it is very high and therefore dollars are allocated each year through the operations and maintenance budget to preserve the existing surfaces. Some of the sections in the area in the South Slave have been there for a great many years and have been preserved in that fashion because each year we make a reinvestment in some surfacing. That will continue again this year. There are plans to do additional surface repair, what we call reseals, in sections of the highway on the Fort Smith highway between the Highway 2 junction near Hay River and Buffalo Junction, as well. Those programs will continue this summer and will continue in future years as the first priority of the department to protect both surfaces, gravel and paved. Thank you, Madam Chairperson.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Also, we have to be very cautious and the Minister has the ability as well as the qualifications to look at those things, that is your background and we have to be very cautious about not only our highways, but our ditches and drainage are so important and what grows beside those highways and what we allow to grow, so that we do not have a deterioration of the approaches or the ditches so that it holds water and leaves so our highways deteriorate. Also, we have in Fort Resolution the Nuni Development Corporation, a locally owned development corporation, that does highway maintenance. They have been doing the highway maintenance for a number of years now and they negotiated those contracts with your department and they have done the job well, so that will just continue as normal. There will be no change in that as well, right, Mr. Minister?